BROWN BAG LUNCH...

       As I was preparing one of my favorite dishes, which happens to be one of my father's recipes (o.k. mom's too...but i prefer my dad's), it brought back memories.  The dish has a couple of names in Italian, I've heard my parents refer to it as Ciambotta or Stufada. As many of you 1st generation Italians know, that asking your parent to translate a word or phrase in English is like asking to translate Sanskrit, historic scroll, or sacred glyphs... you can forget it if the word is in dialect!

       It's a roasted vegetable dish from southern Italy that is so simple and easy to make with tons of flavor (recipe below) served with a crusty loaf of bread.  It brought back great childhood memories of being sent to school with a brown bag lunch.  Of course, back then it had no significance, we just thought it was normal to eat  homemade sandwiches filled with whatever mom put in it...you didn't get a choice....you ate what you got!  Although we didn't have much growing up (Translation= abundance of "material things"/"not spoiled tyrants"), we did have great parents, a roof over our heads and healthy, nutritional meals.   Most days, the brown bag included  homemade roasted peppers with tons of raw garlic, pepper's roasted in the oven then placed in a brown bag to help steam off the skin, and a slice of cheese on bread, or broccoli rabe and cheese, typically day old crusty Italian bread or American white bread.  It's no wonder that my sister and I dislike roasted red peppers and rabe now as adults!  My favorite was and still is,  a mortadella and provalone cheese sandwich...YUM!  As I'm preparing dinner, chopping the vegetables and roasting them until perfectly done, I begin to realize how fortunate we were.  Mom would work all day, come home to prepare dinner and then made sure we had lunch for the next day.  I realize now, that all of this took time and lots of effort, when she could have easily sent us off without or even just a spread of pb & j on white toast everyday.  I feel so lucky to have had that as a child and hope to someday pass it along to my children.  If i could go back for just one day, I would want to say

"Thank you mom, for making my lunch".  

As food was of great importance in my life as a child, it remains even greater today as an adult.  I believe that it's food that brings people together.  For instance, in our family, as loud and dysfunctional as it can be at times, we yell, scream and fight with each other,  but then five minutes later it's, "what do you want to eat"?  By the time we were done eating, we wouldn't even remember what the argument was about.  Even my boyfriend jokes and teases me because he says that regardless if you've just murdered or maimed someone, mom would still ask "but did you eat"?  Not only do I enjoy eating and making it an important part of everyday, I also enjoy cooking traditional family recipes and creating my own.


Recipe "Ciambotta or Stufada"
- 2 small or 1 medium eggplant
- 2 zucchini
- 1 onion
- 3 cloves garlic (or more)
- 1 package of portobello or wild mushrooms
- 3 Italian sweet peppers (or any other pepper)
- fresh cherry tomato's or a jar of homemade preserve
- olive oil
- salt & pepper to taste, crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
- loaf of Italian ciabatta bread
* You can use just about any veggies that are seasonal, including red peppers, celery roots and hot peppers.


Preparation: 10 min. Cook time: approx. 20 min.
Roughly chop/cube the veggies
Saute onions a few minutes, then add garlic and cook another few minutes
Add eggplant first and cook for 5 min., then add the remaining veggies.
Add all the veggies to skillet and continue to cook until tender
Drizzle a good quality extra virgin olive oil before serving. A side of your favorite cheese, glass of vino and you have a fantastic meal!